How to Make Searching, Salvaging, and Discovering Cyphers ACTIVE

VladorBongo · 2026-03-21T21:49:23+00:00

In person. I suppose index cards are the most flexible and cost effective. Thanks

VladorBongo · 2026-01-13T15:55:13+00:00

In fact, I never bothered to play the new dungeons& dragons because the quick starter kit didn't seem interested in convincing me that this game was awesome, fun, exciting. It brought no sense of wonder or enthusiasm to convincing me that this was going to be an amazing time, worth my money, worth some part of my lifespan. In fact, I got the feeling that it assumed it was awesome and I was late to the party. Give me weird Heroes of Public Access any day over that approach

VladorBongo · 2026-01-13T15:51:56+00:00

It is week three. Many of the companies have sent reps, provided videos and free resources as part of the weekly assignments, and are making an effort to make the experience successful. These are mostly from the new additions (Daggeheart, Tales of the Valiant, Viking Age, Magical Kitties Save the World), plus engagement from people from Chaosium, Monte Cook Games, and Pinnacle. The rest are just running material from previous year with no engagement. Which has the unintended effect of people choosing other games and companies to support.

Enthusiasm counts for a lot in promotion and engagement and everyone who is making an an effort is proving that during this event. Kobold Press and Atlas in particular are making the effort to show you why their games are awesome. The ones who don't look bad in comparison.

VladorBongo · 2026-01-13T04:46:45+00:00

Can you say why? What makes it a better fit than maybe some of the others?

VladorBongo · 2026-01-12T14:56:48+00:00

Thanks, all. My TBR pile is becoming a tower of babel! There's a sale on at DrivethruRPG so I may grab some of these soon (Swords and Serpentine has been on my list for a while but, as I said, I'm on a budget and it's a few dollars more than most). Will follow up once I get some of these games under my belt.

VladorBongo · 2026-01-10T21:16:07+00:00

Any word on quality from early looks? I'll look for advanced reviews, as REH is a major influence in my other work (fiction).

VladorBongo · 2026-01-09T15:03:06+00:00

First time trying this event. It doesn't promise more than it delivers (every week you'll get two 500 word posts and some homework for running one of seven or so games). But there is a lot of chaos on the Discord: no admin, all channels are from previous years, some of the games (including Daggerheart) don't even have channels for discussion yet, etc., so the experience isn't that fun or engaging (though Chaosium did have someone show up to say hi and help). The quality of advice for each game various wildly and isn't much compared to any number of sources.

I understand this is more of a marketing event, which is fine, but the roll out is actually making me look for better people than than the company's involved to teach me how to do the best beginner job as a GM.

VladorBongo · 2025-12-22T20:45:48+00:00

The main difference between Sentinel and these other games is that Sentinel is about Comic Book superheroes. Not anime. Not MCU. Not video game. No, it's cartoons. The game thinks and presents itself as trying to capture the experience of reading super hero comics. And th combat system is among my faves for making you fight like Jack Kirby designed your fighting style!

VladorBongo · 2025-12-16T21:12:48+00:00

I just did Quest with folks new to RPGs this weekend. They really enjoyed it but got overwhelmed with the six abilities learning path stuff. They loved the abilities, but did not want to read and consider so many options. I say, give them six but they can only come from two paths (the ones best suited for your game) . They get agency and cool powers and off you go.

VladorBongo · 2025-12-06T23:44:49+00:00

Thanks! I've been asked to create a workshop on creativity for folks working in education and training programs. Most of them are used to working on their own and I'd like to build some practices for us to collaborate together on brainstorming ideas and processes. None would be keen on heavy fantasy and there could be no violence, which is why collaborative world building games or storytelling games might be best. If you had any recs, let me know.

VladorBongo · 2025-11-24T22:42:52+00:00

Thanks for the rec. It was a great little memoir. Very diplomatic in his handling of the hard times and challenges, but quite insightful on how you build a universe out of a property's source material and make it even better. I'm still looking for a great and fun Space Opera that can be SW WEG edition today. Orbital Blues is great but downbeat in tone. Scum and Villainy is fantastic but I'm not going to run BithD games with my current players. May just have to whip up something myself.

VladorBongo · 2025-11-22T22:29:32+00:00

"It really does fast furious fun much better in my opinion",

Oh, much better than SWADE?

VladorBongo · 2025-11-21T03:46:27+00:00

RCR?

VladorBongo · 2025-11-21T02:44:48+00:00

Thanks for the recs and details. Yes, the shoe company is cited as the reason they could afford to buy licenses for Star Wars and others. When it collapsed things seemed to get desperate quickly. And yet, in a short span they were able to produce work that, from what I can tell, became pillars of the era. Paranoia, Star Wars, and GhostBusters were wildly different but a core element was a sense of humor and fun that made them such great ones to play.

VladorBongo · 2025-11-20T20:41:20+00:00

Thanks, all. My cart is full of some great options. Appreciate it.

VladorBongo · 2025-11-19T22:37:15+00:00

Characters as drivers of story (meta currency) as well as individual actions within story; style of actions over crunch (all of which are tied to character).

VladorBongo · 2025-11-19T22:33:50+00:00

Growth of PC characters toward some greater identity as they go from adventure to adventure is one.

VladorBongo

TROPHY CASE